Goodwin and Ling Yeow were neck-and-neck in the first challenge,
with Goowdin scoring 12 out of 20 points and Ling Yeow 11,
with both mistakenly naming port an ingredient in Mehigan's
bourguignon.

Goodwin decided on sage and garlic chicken with celeriac puree
and a spinach ball for her second challenge, while Poh went for
Hainanese chicken rice.

"I've been struggling with the perception of me as just a home
cook throughout the whole competition,'' Goodwin, who specialises
in Australian home-style cooking, said.

"My vision for my dish is that I can combine what I know about
cooking chicken and what I've learned through the competition to
hopefully show the judges just how far I've come and what I'm
capable of.''

While the nation's couch potatoes were whipping themselves into
a frenzy over who would be crowned MasterChef, evicted
contestants were already counting themselves winners from the hit
show.

The finalists knew which of them had won and would walk away
with $100,000 and a publishing deal for a cookbook. Elsewhere,
though, few could be certain which rumour was true.

The MasterChef website was censoring forum messages that
threatened to spoil the result, but that didn't prevent other
online channels such as Twitter claiming an early copy of
Australian Women's Weekly had named Goodwin the victor.

On Sunday, former contestants were getting ready for their
private celebrations before reaping the benefits from the cook-off.
Loyal audiences already knew Sydney chef Matt Moran had offered to
mentor Justine Schofield.

Yesterday Schofield, formerly a sales executive, was enjoying
"an extremely long lunch" with friends and family and still
expressing gratitude to Moran.

Schofield said she was still adjusting to paying bills and
washing dishes after four months on the show. "It's changed my
life. I was on this path of sales, 9 to 5.30 jobs, and not knowing
what I was doing in it."

She intends to spend this year practising her craft in Sydney,
heading to Melbourne or Brisbane next year. After that, the career
map says France, where she hopes to study the region and go into a
kitchen to prepare her for a goal of one day opening a French
bistro.

But Schofield's wasn't the only souffle to rise. Andre Ursini,
who previously worked as a project manager, has joined Martini
Ristorante in his home town of Adelaide. Before his appearance on
MasterChef, he spent three days with the head chef there. After
leaving MasterChef, Ursini approached the Italian restaurant for
work and was accepted.

He hopes to stay for 12 to 18 months, then approach the Belgian
chef Emmanuel Stroobant, who Ursini faced in a celebrity challenge.
Ursini and his girlfriend were planning to watch the MasterChef
finale with Poh, all of whom live in Adelaide.

Food photographer Brent "BJ" Barker Jones has been swamped with
offers to shoot cookbooks. Lucas Parsons has plans to expand a
kitchen in a coffee shop he already owns. Julia Jenkins, who opted
out of a marketing career to compete, has been helping in a number
of Sydney and Melbourne restaurants, assisted by chef Peter
Evans.

Kate Rodrigues is keeping a foot in two camps, helping out at a
local patisserie before returning to university to complete her law
degree. And contender Chris Badenoch has had offers to publish a
cookbook and is pushing ahead with plans to start a restaurant.

Aaron Thomas has been taken on at a Melbourne restaurant of
judge George Calombaris, and West Australian submariner Trevor
Foster has just made an offer to open his first restaurant in
Perth.

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